ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how a life-cycle infrastructure management approach, underpinned by a durability-based framework, can be adopted to deliver successful short- to long-term outcomes. A key focus on material/asset selection, together with an understanding of their life cycle costs and the prediction of their future performance enable the optimisation of the whole-of-life investment and help balance capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditure (OPEX). For infrastructure to safely and reliably deliver the required levels of service to customers and communities as it ages, necessitate a whole-of-life approach to decision-making. A consistent, systematic and transparent durability management process being a key enabler to achieve whole-of-life objectives, it needs to be integrated across all phases of an asset's life cycle. Durability design is underpinned by the identification, assessment and mitigation of risks associated with the failure of assets within their specified Design Life resulting in early treatments.
